The economic success of digitally distributed interactive media depends on the availability of attractive content to maximize the number of page views. In general, increasing page views maximizes user exposure to a site and therefore helps build a user base. Moreover, many commercial sites generate revenue through the placement of advertising on a per-view basis, i.e., the advertising revenue depends on the number of times a page containing advertisements is viewed. In the following discussion, the term “content” is used to generally indicate any kind of information that a user may perceive sensorially, including for example text, diagrams, photographs, sound, animations, video, interactive games, three-dimensional virtual reality environments, and similar information. The term “page” refers to content represented by a data structure suitable for digital storage and transmission, and for presentation to a user through a sensorial medium, such as the video display of a computer connected to the internet. A common example is a web page encoded in a language such as HTML. The term “site” refers to a collection of pages which a user may navigate by tools such as browsing or searching. A common example is a web site including web pages. While the following discussion will focus on the specific example of internet web sites, it is understood that the same concepts may be applied to other media.
The number of pages viewed by users can be increased through several measures. For example, one may increase the number of pages by adding new content to the site. Users already visiting the site will naturally be captured by the new content, for example through links on pages they are currently browsing. Moreover, more content brings in more traffic from search engines. Alternatively, one may add additional content to existing pages, for example in the form of sidebars covering topics related to the page currently being browsed. The additional content improves the user experience and helps retain users.
As an alternative to adding entirely new content, one may create additional links between existing pages. This facilitates the user's exploration of the site. For example, if a user has an interest in a topic that is related to the page currently being viewed, a direct link to another page covering that topic obviates the need for using an external search engine or other source of information. This approach “engineers” a user experience that encourages browsing and user retention. A similar result may be obtained by adding a “search box” that allows the user to search for a particular topic within the site rather than on the entire web. In both cases, user traffic may be contained within the publisher's site. Moreover, traffic may be redirected toward pages that would otherwise be rarely visited, and additional advertisement revenue may be generated by reviving such “dormant” content.
One problem with all of the above measures to increase page views is that they generally involve a substantial cost. Additional content, whether it is embedded within an existing page or formatted as a separate page, must be generated in-house or acquired from third parties. Moreover, content must be filtered and arranged in a way that is attractive to the users of the site. For example, the user of a site dedicated to politics will naturally be interested in political news and related information, arranged in relation to the content of the page that he or she is currently viewing. Finally, creating a network of links between pages involving related content also entails costs.
Proposed solutions to these problems have inherent shortcomings. For example, news aggregation tools may be used to build customized content centered around a given topic. However such tools require close integration with a publisher's own site, and also must be hosted within the site. On the other hand, there are self-service publishing tools that allow a publisher to easily construct a customized site. Self-service tools may also include a hosting service. However such tools do not provide facilities to automatically generate customized content.
Accordingly, there is a need for enhancing the content of web pages and other digitally distributed interactive media without the cost and complexity of measures currently used to maximize page views.
Drawings are only diagrammatic and not to scale. Corresponding elements in different drawings are indicated by the same numerals.